KDs are designed/developed/inspired/mused/auto-suggested/indigested to make folks think; an especially uncommon experience among Democrats, Republicans, and jingoistic mainline denominationalists who continue to discourage dissent with their ever-threatening thought police.

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Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Perspective

Teaching a D.Min.
course on "Christocentric Preaching in a Pluralistic Age" at Kansas
City's NTS back in the early 80s, I lunched with some students because Ralph
Earle wasn't around.

Between lectures,
I listened.

Same old same
old: "It's sooooooo
hard being a pastor...People don't like the hymns that I pick...I'm criticized
for the kind of car that I drive and where we shop and...My denomination is sooooooo ___ed up...I feel
like Paul in chains...I...I...I...I...I...I...I..."

I couldn't take
it anymore.

I blurted, "Pooooooor babies...You are
suffering sooooooo much
for Jesus...They don't like the hymns that you pick! Help me,
Jesus!...Have you ever looked at the cross? Have you ever read what Jesus
said about taking up your cross? Must Jesus bear the cross alone and all
the world go free? Yeah, that's what you want, isn't it?...How about
getting flayed for faith?...How about watching your family stuffed in burlap
bags filled with venomous snakes and tossed into the sea?...How about being
blinded or beheaded or...?"

I got away with
it...because I was the one who passed out grades at the end of the semester.

But I've never
regretted it.

God knows I know
pastors are paid to be abused; especially in the religious culture of America
where Christianity is only coincidental to the Bible's red letters and, as
Dylan sang, clergy are rarely more than errand boys for the wandering desires
of their flocks.

Yeah, I know all
about the clergy killers.

Yeah, I know all
about people transferring their pejorative pathologies to pastors.

Yeah, I know
about being in denominations irretrievably apostate under current management.

Yeah, I know all
about thaaaaaaat.

Ending the conversation,
I blurted again, "Man up!"

@#$%

Here's the deal.

If ya can't stand
the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Didn't you take
the course on original sin in seminary?

It's always been
less than perfect in the world and churches that never really totally overcome
their worldly DNA.

I know that
sounds harsh; but if you're really called to undershepherding
to the Good Shepherd, you know you're going to catch hell for heralding and
praying and laboring and even insisting that fidelity aims for life "on
earth as it is in heaven."

If you're really
called..., you know it's a war in an Ephesians 6 kinda way.

If you're really
called..., you have memorized Psalm 62 in your brain and branded it upon your
heart.

If you're really
called..., you're more into providing ministry than receiving it.

Yeah, everyone
needs retreats.

Take 'em.

Yeah, everyone
needs a sabbatical every now and then.

Take 'em.

Yeah, it's nice
to have some folks around interceding for ya.

Receive 'em.

Buuuuuuut for God's sake
and the sake of those entrusted to your undershepherding
to the Good Shepherd, stop bantering and moaning and bleeding and...all over
those who've been entrusted to you.

If you find
yourself receiving more than giving, you just may want to consider...

Read John 10.

@#$%

When I'm feeling
especially vocationally bummed, I look at the cross.

I consider the
martyrs.

Dang, I look at
what's happening to our sisters and brothers around the world who are really
being persecuted for righteousness' sake.

Then I get
embarrassed by my whining and bantering and moaning and bleeding and...

@#$%

The old priest
said to the young priest in Georges Bernanos' The Diary of a Country Priest, "Salt
stings on an open wound; but saves you from gangrene."